SERMON  OUTLINE

Glory to God Through Obedience   Luke 9.23

Introduction

Daily ongoing obedience brings Glory to God.

Obedience

1)    What is obedience?

Doing what God instructs me to do.

2)    What is the essence of obedience?

A willing submission of my will to God’s will with a desire to glorify God.

3)    Highest expression of obedience – the cross. Philippians 2.6-11

4)    Finest example of obedience – Jesus. John 4.34

Our Union With Christ

1)    Obedience that brings Glory to God is only possible through our union with Christ.

2)    By the cross we are forgiven of our sins, and we are cut off from our sinful past life in Adam.

3)    By the resurrection we are made new people who are spiritually alive and empowered to obey God for His Glory.

Galatians 2.20

My Obedience

1)    As I obey God, in Christ, I bring Glory to God.

2)    Because of the cross and the resurrection of Christ, we who are in Christ, can walk in submission and willing obedience to

God, and bring Glory to God. Luke 9.23

3)    We are called to be like Jesus. Romans 8.29

4)    When we disobey we can Glorify God by confessing our sin to God. Joshua 7.19; 1 John 1.9

Conclusion

The opportunity to Glorify God by our obedience should be one of our compelling motives for living.

SERMON NOTES

The Glory of God

The Glory of God in the Believers Obedience    Luke 9.23

-What I wanted to do this morning was show how our daily and ongoing obedience to God brings Glory to God. This led me to ask myself, “What is obedience?” My answer to that question was, “Obedience is doing what God instructs me to do.” In the Great Commission of Jesus to the church to go and make disciples of all the nations, he says we are to go and share the good news with them, baptise those who believe, and then “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you”. (Matthew 28.20) In other words teach them to obey. So obedience is to do what God commands me to do in His Word.

-Then I asked myself, “What is the essence of obedience? What does real obedience really like?” I can do what God commands me to do because I know I have to do it but is that genuine obedience? The Pharisees did what God commanded in His Word but were they really obeying God? What I concluded was that genuine obedience is not only outward compliance to God’s commands but a willing submission of my will to God’s will with a desire to glorify God. Genuine obedience to God is a willing sacrifice to God of my rights and of my self to do God’s will in order to bring Glory to God.

-The highest expression we have of genuine obedience to God is the cross, and Jesus is the finest example of genuine obedience. Jesus once said to his disciples, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (John 4.34). In Philippians 2.6-11, we have a wonderful description of genuine obedience. In verse 8 we read, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”. It is this kind of genuine self-sacrificing, submission-to-God, obedience that brings Glory to God and this is the kind of obedience we are called to as believers.

-This obedience that brings Glory to God is only possible through our union with Jesus Christ. Genuine obedience to God comes through the cross and the resurrection of Christ. By the cross we are forgiven of our sins, and we are cut off from our sinful past life in Adam. In Adam the only obedience to God that was possible was selfish, self-serving obedience that brought no Glory to God. In Christ we are made new people who are spiritually alive and empowered to obey God for His Glory. In Christ we can live selfless lives of obedience to God which bring Him Glory for we are serving God in the life of His Son Jesus Christ.

-In Galatians 2.20 Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” My obedience glorifies God when it is obedience that is empowered by the life of Christ in me. This obedience in Christ possesses a cross-like attitude and resurrection power, which glorifies God.

-In Christ, the cross and resurrection enable me to obey God in a way that brings Glory to God. As I obey God, in Christ, I bring Glory to God. It was with the foreknowledge of His cross and His resurrection that Jesus said to his disciples and to us in Luke 9.23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Because of the cross and the resurrection of Christ, we who are in Christ, can walk in submission and willing obedience to God, and bring Glory to God. We can take up our cross daily and follow Jesus in obedience to God and bring Glory to His name. That is the reason why God put us in Christ. “For those whom God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8.29). It is in Christ that we are pleasing to God and in obedience bring Glory to God.

-There will be times when we disobey God’s Word. This will give the world and the Devil the opportunity to slander God and will erode our credibility with other believers and unbelievers. But even in our sin because we are in Christ we are given the opportunity to bring Glory to God. There is an interesting verse in Joshua 7.19. The army of Israel has been defeated in their attempt to capture the small city of Ai and Joshua discerns that this is because there is sin in the camp of Israel. Achan the son of Carmi is chosen as the cause of this sin in the camp of Israel. Joshua says to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” In our obedience of confessing our sin to God we bring Glory to God. 1 John 1.9 says, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” In confessing our sins we draw attention to the faithful and just character of God, we glorify God. It is when we refuse to repent and confess our sins that we do not glorify God.

-By saving us from our sins and uniting us with Christ, God has enabled us to obey and bring Glory to his name. Even when we sin and confess our sins we bring Glory to God.

-The opportunity that God has given us to bring Glory to God in Christ needs to become one of the compelling motives for living our lives. God created us in His image so that we might bring Glory to His name and share in His Glory. That is God’s call on your life and on my life. God enables us to be fulfilled in the calling of obedience to God and in that obedience we bring Glory to God.